Friday, December 2, 2011

You should be aware that this post contains mega spoilers for the Dec. 2 episode "Death's Door," as well as wildly uninformed speculation on where Bobby's character goes from here.

I've mentioned before that I don't read spoilers. I like talking about ideas with other fans and I like taking note of what future guest stars may be on the show (Jason Dohring!) but beyond that, I don't look. So I went into this episode with no idea whether or not Jim Beaver is shuffling off the show ala Misha Collins. The show certainly hasn't hesitated to kill off characters in the past, so I've been a little concerned ever since the last episode when the aptly named Dick, aka Head Leviathan, shot Bobby in the head.

We pick up where we left off, with Sam and Dean freaking out and Bobby bleeding. As they rush him to the hospital, we cut to a different take from a scene last week, when they find a victim up a tree. But Bobby quickly realizes that this isn't exactly reality and that he in fact is the victim. From there, he begins bouncing around to different scenes in his life, including a meaningful conversation with his wife (although we're not sure yet why it's meaningful) and a job he once worked with Rufus (nice to see him again!) There are also some memories of Sam and Dean, then Bobby seeing his mother in his kitchen and instantly closing the door. (Major foreshadowing and I called the eventual plot development right there.)

Meanwhile, in what Bobby calls the waking world, doctors tell Dean and Sam to prepare themselves for Bobby's likely death. At one point later in the episode, a hapless hospital admin approaches Dean to ask how Bobby felt about being an organ donor. Who else got chills in that scene?

It turns out that the reason Bobby's mind went to that particular job with Rufus was because his former partner had a near-death experience. Rufus shared with Bobby that the way he escaped death was finding the right door--the one that makes you walk right through the memory you least want to face. Bobby explains that he's been shot and that Rufus isn't even real and his former partner becomes his spirit guide or what have you. They return to the scene where his wife Karen was, who is now violently upset. Turns out that she and Bobby had argued bitterly that night because he didn't want to have kids. (More accurately, because he didn't want to be a father.) Their argument was only three days before her posession and his eventually having to kill her and one of his worst regrets. Rufus is hopeful that this was the memory Bobby had to confront, but of course there's way too much left in the episode for it to be that easy! And, as Bobby has a Reaper on his tail (or, as Bobby put it, in his custard) we know it's going to be quite difficult. At this point, I was betting Bobby would in fact die.

In one of my favorite scenes, we see Bobby playing baseball with a young Dean even though they'd been expressly ordered by John Winchester (worst dad ever) to practice shooting. We also get a funny memory of adult Sam and Dean asking Bobby to solve the debate of who's a bigger bad-ass: Chuck Norris or Jet-Li. (Feel free to weigh in with your vote in the comments.)

Bobby tells Rufus that while you can't stop a Reaper permanently, he and the boys have run across them enough to pick up a few tricks. He manages to trap the Reaper, but the Reaper points out how parts of Bobby's mental world are disappearing because his brain is dying. Because of that, the trap will eventually fade and the Reaper will get him. Is Bobby merely postponing the inevitable because he has knowledge of the Leviathans he needs to give the boys?

The theme of the episode was clearly fatherhood (with the secondary theme of Bobby Singer Rocks) and we get a glimpse of Bobby on the phone arguing with John and admitting, "I know I'm not their father." But come on, we all know differently. Bobby Singer was the best parent those poor kids ever had. And in the final confrontation with his own abusive, aloholic father, Bobby concludes that as well. Bobby's late dad sneers that he's glad Bobby never had kids because he would have sucked and Bobby rejoins that, as a matter of fact, he adopted two and they grew up GREAT. They're HEROES. (Big Damn, if you'll pardon the Firefly reference.)

The awful childhood memory played out the way I figured it would, with young Bobby shooting his father in order to save his mother (at which point she immediately told him God would punish him. Yikes, the parents on this show.) And as the Reaper lunges for Bobby, he finally escapes death through the right door and...

His eyes opened in the hospital. Dean and Sam were ecstatic and for a second I actually thought the status had been returned to quo (they've dodged death plenty of times before). He tries unsuccessfully to tell them something and when they get him a pen, he scrawls the important numbers (what they are and why they're important, I don't know) on Sam's hand. Then he smiles at them and it hit me in the gut that he was totally gonna die. He opened his mouth and I braced myself for an admission of "I love you" that would make me sob. My husband said, "He's gonna say 'I'm ready.'" But, no. In classic Bobby fashion, all he said was, "Idjits." And then he flatlined. And I sobbed.

I thought that was the end of the show and was surprised to see us back again in Bobby's "house," the darkness ever growing outside it. Sam and Dean are in the living room arguing about proper movie snacks (and I laughed out loud at Dean's insistence that licorice is "chewy bites of heaven"). The Reaper tells Bobby it's now or never, is he gonna cross over peacefully or become a stuck spirit? He also says, "They'll be all right without you," the boys fade, and credits roll.

So, without citing interviews or spoilers that give us the answer (assuming they exist), what do you guys think? Is Bobby gone??? Will he return a horrible shade in the new year, caught between two worlds and warped by his own good intentions? (If so, did dude learn NOTHING from Cass?) What were those numbers? It all makes my head hurt. Although that could be from the crying.

What I do know is that, even if Bobby's "gone," this show is great at unexpectedly bringing back the dead for guest spots and episodes showcasing Jim Beaver's talents are always excellent. That said, holy crap, they killed Bobby!

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

A lot of the readers to this blog (you're out there, even if you don't comment! :) ) come to us from BuddyTV, where we're listed as a Premiere Blogger. They understand the sickening dread falling upon us as the first unrelenting hellatus approaches.

So they're running a Holiday Trivia Challenge! Prizes for the Supernatural portion include a script signed by Jared, the anime series signed by Misha, and complete DVD sets, among other things. Other shows are included in the challenge, as well, and participants get entered into the overall prize drawings for Kindle Fire, gift cards, and more.

Saturday, November 19, 2011

The episode starts with something running through Wharton State Forest in New Jersey. A couple of glampers are “roughing it” in a tent with their cherry wood, four poster bed and widescreen TV. (Do people really do this kind of glamorous camping? I’m appalled! I thought we were living it up when we bought blow-up mattresses to sleep on in our tent and our entertainment involves playing Skip-bo by lantern light while we eat Smores cooked over the fire.) Before you know it, a snoozing Mr. Glamper is hung upside down in a tree, wrapped tight like a burrito in his sleeping bag, while a mystery monster munches on him.

The Winchesters and Bobby find themselves another hell hole to hide in. The lack of amenities and being forced to stay so far off the grid they don’t even have the luxury of hot food or showers is really getting to Dean. After stopping the world’s end, twice, he wonders if they shouldn’t just let it finally bite the dust.

The Jersey Devil is making headlines in the area due to a rash of strange deaths. It is Jersey, after all. Anything inexplicable has often been attributed to the urban creature which is described as human-like with bat wings and sometimes a tail or horse head.

“I took a look at the cadaver, what’s left of it, not a happy camper.” – Bobby

The boys interview Ranger Rick at Biggersons, a local restaurant. The warden seems stoned and completely unconcerned that his assistant might be missing. After being no help whatsoever, Rick leaves and Bobby joins the boys for dinner. A testy waiter named Brandon delivers food to “Big Bird, Ken Doll and Creepy Uncle” before mouthing off to his boss and storming out. An unperturbed Dean gleefully inhales a Pepperjack Turdunken Slammer.

“You don’t shoot Bambi, jackass. You shoot Bambi’s mother.” – Bobby

The trio of hunters head out into the woods where the brothers are impressed with Bobby’s survivalist skills. They find what remains of Rick’s assistant and call the ranger in. The dude’s unfazed that his partner’s dead. Just as Rick’s radioing in the crime, Bobby hears a noise. Quicker than you could scream “watch out!” an unseen force yanks Rick off his feet and hauls him up into the trees. All three guys train their rifles upward, but the night lamps don’t show a thing. Bobby instructs them to go dark. He closes his eyes, carefully listens, then takes a blind shot and—blam!—knocks it out of the tree. It appears to be a man with glaucoma fogged eyes and a cannibal’s appetite, not a Jersey Devil. (I'm intrigued, but kinda bummed.) The boys haul the corpse back to their cabin where he suddenly springs up in a rage. They riddle him with bullets and he finally dies. A crude, not to mention grody, autopsy by Bobby and Sam reveals a lot of gelatinous goo, a mongo adrenal gland (which explains his brute strength), bit and pieces of Rick, a pine cone and a—hork!—cat’s head. (Poor kitty.) While the two surgeons look green around the gills, Dean seems strangely uninterested and even more ravenous than usual. Not good, methinks.

“I think you pissed off my sandwhich.” – Dean

They go back to Biggersons because Dean is craving another Slammer. As he moans in ecstasy over his sandwich, Bobby and Sam start to look around the diner and notice the other patrons are equally enamored with their turducken. Much to Dean’s horror, they take away his meal. At home it erupts into purple snot. Yack! It’s the same goo that was in the dead body.

“If I wasn’t so chilled out right now, I’d puke.” – Dean

The guys stalk a Biggersons’ meat delivery truck. Dean’s passed out in a tryptophan coma in the back seat so Sam asks Bobby if he’s concerned about him. Bobby says the boys spend so much time worrying about each other that neither one of them is living.

Meanwhile, Biggersons bitchy Brandon (say that ten times fast) attacks a girl, but someone stops him before he’s able to chow down. Turns out it’s Edgar the Leviathan. What better way to create widespread chaos then through food?

“The world’s a suicide case, we save it, it just steals more pills.” – Bobby

Sleep and coffee have cleared Dean’s head. (But he’s so cute and goofy when he’s stoned) While Sam scouts the area, Bobby takes Dean to task for his shitty attitude. He says Dean’s talking like a hunter who’s about to die. Dean says he’s talking like someone who’s had it and can’t figure out why he once thought any of this mattered. Point blank, Bobby says he needs to find a reason to get his head back in the game because if Dean dies first Bobby will kill him. (Awww.)

THE RISE OF DICK (best TV news subtitle ev-er)

Dick shows up at the warehouse and everyone’s atwitter waiting for his arrival. The boys do some research and find he’s one of the Top 35 businessmen in America. A corporate shark billionaire Leviathan. Awesome.

He asks our trusty doc Leviathan about the failed subjects in their experiment. You know, the one’s with hyper-adrenalized cannibalism. Dick is pissed that these failed test subjects have made the news. His number 1, golden rule, is that “there are no monsters.” To punish doctor demented, and to set an example for his other employees, Dick “bibs” him, which means he’s got to open that razor-sharp maw and consume himself, leaving all the black goo on a bib. Niiice!

More spying gets Bobby nabbed. He figures his chance of being rescued is slim since Sam and Dean don’t have back-up and don’t know how to kill these big bads. Fortunately for Mr. Singer, a cleaning truck pulls up to the warehouse. The Winchesters hijack their cleaning supplies and bust through the front door spraying Leviathans as they go. The toothy monsters burn up, which at least slows them down. Dick goes to see what the commotion is. Bobby reads the files on his desk and blanches at something he see there, then he nabs a second gun Dick left behind. He shoots Dick’s assistant and heads into the fray. Between soap and shots the brothers manage to escape with Bobby slowly pulling up the rear. Why’s he hesitating? Bobby never hesitates.

Finally he runs out the door and heads for the side van door. Dick chases after him and shoots. Shit, shit, shit. Is Bobby hit? The boys are talking to him as they speed off, but he’s not answering. Sam starts to pass him back his ball cap, but notices a bullet hole in it. NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The preview for Death's Door, the winter finale next week, shows Bobby in the hospital and things do NOT look good.

Okay, this has been my worst fear. If Sera kills Bobby I may have to hunt her down. I love that old coot and he better make it through this. It’s bad enough we lost Cass, but I understand it with us going back to the type of Season 1 stories we’ve been doing. But DO NOT kill Bobby. He has to continue being their surrogate father and he has to get together with Sheriff Jodi. Period. Other than my general freakedoutness over the ending of this episode I enjoyed it. Bobby had some of the best lines and stoned Dean was a hoot. What did you think and do you think Bobby will pull through or is this just one more thing the writers are going to take away from the boys to make them ill at ease and defenseless against the Leviathans?

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Misha Collins is running the Greatest International Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever Seen, for the Guinness World Record. Have you signed up? I have!

http://greatestinternationalscavengerhunttheworldhaseverseen.com/

REGISTRATION CLOSES TOMORROW at 11:58 PM Moscow Time. (That's 2:58 in the afternoon in New York). So hurry! They'll be assigning teams because they all have to be fairly even, but you can name the people you want to be your teammates. Feel free to post your name in the comments if you want people to join your team. Also feel free to include my name if you don't know anyone else. :)

Monday, November 14, 2011

On the Box'sChris Philpott posted half of his interview with Mark Sheppard where the wily demon talks about pursuing the role of Crowley because of Kim Manner. Definitely worth a read, no spoilers. I'll link the 2nd half when it's posted.

And then I'm posting this because I happened upon it and it made me giggle, so I thought I'd give you a smile today. Jared is such a crack-up when he goofs on his sexy charm.

Friday, November 11, 2011

I love when the writers get all cheeky and poke fun at industry conventions! I wonder what else they'll decide is supposed to be included in season 7.

We start with "Then" and with so much focus on Becky, I'm guessing she's the one who will marry Sam. Yeah, despite my attempts to remain unspoiled, I knew Sam was the one getting married. :(

We're in Las Vegas, with Dean talking up a hot waitress. He's actually pretty relaxed and into the flirtation, which is nice to see. But this opening talk confuses the heck out of me. Since when do they have a sacred annual pilgrimage to Vegas? It took me a long time to get into the flow of the story after that.

Dean's main problem, coaxed out of him by the waitress (stripper?), is actually pretty great. His brother is batshit nuts, but the shit's not hitting the fan. He's all reasonable and stuff, though he's worried about Sam being out camping by himself. She says "we all need to face ourselves sometime," not referring to Sam, and when we get to the end of the episode, that idea is revisited. Nice circle there. But I'll come back to that.

So Sam texts Dean to come down the street, and wear his Fed suit. Hey, I recognize this church! It was the one where Sam defeated Samhain in "It's the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester." Pretty sure it was also the entry to the tombs in "Houses of the Holy," too. You know you're obsessed when you recognize repurposed locations. :)

So Dean comes in packing, but Sam assures him he doesn't need the pistol. Dean asks what their pretext is (I love when they use the lingo, though I'm not sure we've heard this one since "Tall Tales"). What are they hunting, a siren?

No. Sam's in love, and he's getting married.

Enter the creepy bride, with the thickest veil this side of the Boar's Head ("Really?! SuperFan99?!"

Sam and Becky leave for her home in Delaware. Dean calls Bobby but has to leave a message, as Bobby's got his hands full with a nest in Oregon. I love that Bobby's presence is so strong, even when he's not on screen.

Sam and Becky pull into a restaurant parking lot. Sam says they just ate, and for a moment I think Becky must be a monster of some sort who needs lots of calories, but no, it all becomes clear when she walks in to the site of her high school reunion, with the requisite mean girl handling the planning. Becky shows off Sam, then introduces him to her friend Guy, who has an interesting reaction to Sam. I assumed on first watch that he was part of Becky's plan, and he is, but his surprise is not just that it worked, as we later find out.

"Guy's a really good friend. We met in the erotic horror section at the Novel Hovel..."

Guy's an event planner, and reunion season is very busy for him, but Becky runs after him to get some silver-clad glass bottle and makes reference to him being Wiccan. Dean drives up as they drive away. He doesn't follow, but goes inside and pulls out Dad's journal, presumably to do research (though I'd think he has that thing memorized by now) or take notes (maybe it's his own journal now). He's immediately distracted by a newspaper story about some guy's good fortune and immediate tragedy.

Sam's sitting at a lovely dinner (rotisserie chicken from the grocery store) and Becky comes out in sexy lingerie. Anyone else reminded of "Wishful Thinking" at this point? Or, like, for the full 11 minutes up to this point? But Sam gets vision-like headaches and comes painfully to reality, with no clue how he got there, and I can't help wondering why I thought he seemed so normal. Now he's really Sam, for a few crucial seconds. Becky gives him the potion, and he's back to being in "love" with her. Poor Sam.

Cut to a guy hitting balls on a baseball field, and another guy using mojo of some sort (his hand movements remind me of Castiel, but I'm thinking more like demon or witch). Baseball to the face, requisite blood splatter, ewwwww.

Dean, being supportive, brings Sam a waffle iron. Sam's a little standoffish but displays no animosity. He's just...I don't know, kind of empty? Dean brings up the job in town. Baseball guy just got called up to the majors. Becky says their first thought was crossroads demon, but there's the 10-year time frame. Dean's totally flummoxed that Sam and Becky are working the case together. He's pissed at Becky, but even when Sam says "that's my wife you're talking about," there's no heat. He's talking the talk, but there's no real emotion behind it.

Dean says people who get their dreams come true bite it pretty quick. Sam says maybe what's bothering Dean is that Sam doesn't need him anymore. Ouch. Dean leaves, and tells Bobby he doesn't want another hunter, but since Bobby's all the way across the country (sorry, Dean, he's not close to his magic South Dakota wormhole), he's going to hook Dean up with someone local.

Sam catches Becky writing in her journal (swirly "Sam loves Becky" crap) and sniffing the presumably scented ink. When he licks his thumb and rubs the ink off her nose, there is nothing romantic about it. Except to her. He's found another dream-achiever...and Becky's journal. But despite her hilarious panic, he thinks it's beautiful and hugs the book. He's so adorable!

Dean goes back to the restaurant to meet the hunter, but the burly guy he approaches first isn't who he's looking for. It's the scrawny guy in the corner (DJ Qualls!), who says, "I thought you'd be taller." Bobby told him Dean would be all surly and premenstrual working with him, but he's cool with it. So do you think he'll go the way of Tamara, a hunter never seen again, or Rufus, recurring until he dies?

Dean (in a sweater vest?!) and his new partner cross paths with Sam and Becky at the CEO's office. Dean plays hard-hitting journalist very well, while Garth cuts right to the chase and hits the guy with "nefarious means" questions about black magic and hoodoo. Between the two of them, they get that the guy didn't want the job. But his bitchy wife obviously did want it. Dean tries to get the story from her, but she blows them off.

"Why do people keep thinking I'm threatening them?"
"Because it sounded exactly like a threat, dude."

Sam's trying to work the case while Becky tweets about going on a romantic getaway. The elixir wears off again, but it leaked in Becky's purse, and she can't stop Sam from reverting.

Dean saves the CEO's wife, whose story makes it sound like a demon deal. But the timeline is whack. Garth shows his hunter chops and lays out the plan. They'll stow the wife with his cousin, a tri-racial paraplegic sniper, while they go after the demon.

Becky makes a desperation call to Guy, Sam is in pain and asks Becky what's going on, and when he says he's calling Dean, she knocks him out with a waffle iron.

Sam wakes up tied to a bed in a nice cabin.

Tied. To a bed.

...

...

Okay, I'm back. Sam's fully himself, and what a friggin' relief! Becky tests him for concussion symptoms, says he's pantsless because they're very constricting, but don't worry, she didn't do anything weird. Guy calls her back on her computer, and she wants the elixir. She says the stuff is wearing off faster and faster and whines that they haven't even consummated their marriage. Guy says to meet him in an hour, and Sam heard everything. He's pissed, while Becky is full of justification. Sam knows right away that Guy is the one killing everyone, and says Becky is on his list. Crazy woman. She refuses to untie him, stuffs a rag in his mouth, and calls "love you too!" as she runs off for more love potion.

I know she's pathetic and doing something awful here, but I really like Becky!

But it turns out Sam was right. Guy wants payment now, and reveals his red eyes. Reunions give him tons of clients, and he admits (kind of) that he's responsible for the deaths. He says he wasn't thrilled to see her new hubby was Sam Freakin' Winchester, but he'll give her a special deal. Twenty-five years—unprecedented—with Sam for her soul and her promise not to tell the Winchesters any of it.

The timeline gets a little murky for me from this point. She wants a drink, but Guy hands over the potion, then she goes back to the house and talks to Sam, then she's drinking at the end of the reunion. I think the editing could have been tidied up a little.

Dean and Garth go to Becky's apartment and find enough clues to send them to the lake house (Loon Lake, nice pun :) ). Becky is there lamenting that her plan to show off Sam—he's tall and nice, and they'd think she was happy—isn't going according to plan. She does a short rundown of her life and fondles the bottle of elixir. Sam tells her she's better than this, she says she's not so sure, and now we're back at the restaurant after the reunion. She tells Guy she's in.

Wow. I can't believe we still have 20 minutes to go. This episode was actually shorter than normal, but seemed to go on for a long time.

Becky gets close enough to the demon to seal the deal, but instead drops a lighter on a devil's trap made from blueberry vodka. Sam, Dean, and Garth show up, so apparently they made it to the lake house. Guy asks for Dean's autograph, Dean pulls out the demon-killing knife. Guy claims to be an innovator instead of a cheater, using an "intern" to arrange accidents and collect early on the souls. Intern flings all three hunters across the room. He's pretty powerful. Fights ensue, Garth gets knocked out, Sam and Dean are getting throttled, season 1 style. Becky saves Sam with a knife through the intern's torso (that knife isn't that long!) and Sam tosses it to Dean, who turns it on Guy.

Guy says "oh crap" and Dean thinks it's because of him, but then Crowley appears. Oh, crap. But Crowley isn't too happy with Guy's stupidity. The "intern" ratted him out. Crowley's pissed at the damage to their credibility.

"There's a reason we don't call our chits in early. Consumer confidence. This isn't Wall Street, this is Hell! We have a little something called integrity."

Crowley makes a deal to cancel all Guy's deals (15 of them) and take Guy from Dean. Sam's suspicious, and Crowley points out that demons have left Sam and Dean alone while they're dealing with the Leviathans.

His "done. and done." when he cancels the deals reminds me of Ash. *sniff*

Man, I love Crowley.

Sam, with absolutely no sympathy for Becky, gets an annulment and says she'll probably never see him again. But he does take pity and tells her she's not a loser, to just do her thing, whatever that is, and the right guy will find her. Then Garth gets all crushy on her, but Dean squashes that pretty quick.

We have the goodbye scene, when Dean tells Garth he doesn't suck. "Thank you, man. That's the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me." I like Garth. I hope we see him again.

Sam says he does need Dean watching his back, but Dean admits Sam's a grown up and doesn't need him any more.

"It's still a Denver scramble up here, I just know my way around the plate now."

Sam says it's about time Dean gets to just look out for himself, but Dean doesn't look too thrilled about that. This is where we're supposed to reflect back on the waitress (stripper?) saying he needed to face himself. Come on, Dean, you can do it. You're a helluva guy, you know.

Final verdict: This wasn't my favorite episode, but I really liked the tone and the characters, and I have a feeling this will be one of my favorites to rewatch. It's always nice to have a light episode among all the heavy, dark ones.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

If you've been missing seeing Misha Collins on your screen, consider watching some upcoming episodes of Ringer (the Sarah Michelle Gellar twisty noir drama on CW). According to TVguide.com, Misha will play someone from her past! It'll be strange to see him in something other than the trench coat :-)

Monday, November 7, 2011

Yay! I got the cover for my May YA release, HOLLYWEIRD. This book came about one day while I daydreamed about doing a set visit to SUPERNATURAL. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has fantasized about that or, for those of us who haven't been lucky enough to actually meet and take photos with the cast, meeting Jared and Jensen. I had so much fun writing this romantic paranormal and there are plenty of nods to SPN that fans will catch. You might also recognize a few Supernatural Sisters names in the book. ;)

Their dream-come-true vacation takes a turn for the weird when Aly discovers that Dakota is actually the son of Satan, sent to earth to prey on the souls of the vain and needy. When Dakota sets his sights on Missy, who will do anything to become a star, Aly joins forces with Jameson Dagon, a (hottie) fallen angel (inspired by Dean) sent to spy on Dakota as his personal assistant, to stop the errant demon.

Saturday, November 5, 2011

So the question of the week is whether the boys will kiss and make up in this episode enough to work together. The previews make it seem impossible.

(I admit, I was halfway through the episode before I got the title, "The Mentalists." Duh.)

Now cuts to a medium holding a séance. Hey, I have a necklace like the medium’s! The woman in couple is eager to ask questions of the spirits, but the man is skeptical. He wants to know about paperwork, and when he puts his hands on the planchette, lights start flickering, the fire flares and the planchette moves on its own, lifting to jam into the throat of the medium.

Cut to Dean, stealing a POS with primer. (Wahhh! My Impala!) When he hotwires it, he hears about mediums dying in Lily Dale, the most psychic town in America. So Dean heads to the crime scene. You ever wonder if he thinks, “Screw it, not this time?”

At the crime scene, he finds the table rigged with tricks of a medium’s trade, switches to activate billowing curtains and such. (Okay, it amuses me up that this episode is written by Ben Acker and Ben Blacker. Just caught my eye.) Dean walks into a local restaurant and is puzzled by the greeting, deciding to eat elsewhere, when he hears Sam. Dean is trying to act normal, but Sam’s expression is absolutely stony. Dean places his order, gets his free affirmation, which amuses Sam. Dean takes that opening to ask if they just shouldn’t work together. Before Sam agrees, a woman stops by their table and stares, then pulls out her phone. Sam assures her they’re not the evil Winchesters from last week’s episode. She puts her phone away, declaring that she can see by their auras that they’re truly gentle. Riiiighhhht. She’s joined by a Russian named Nicholas who claims to be intuitive, if they need help. He picks up Sam’s spoon, “focuses energy on it,” and sets it down, seemingly unchanged. The two walk away and Sam shows Dean what he has on the murders of the mediums—the first was brained with her own crystal ball. Sam goes to stir sugar into his coffee, and his spoon bends backwards.

“He broke my spoon!”

The next scene shows the brothers approaching a green house (I notice because I recently had my house painted green). It belongs to the psychic whose murder opened the show. Her granddaughter is there, who also works as a psychic, but declares her way as less “woo-woo” and more body language. She reads the boys well enough. The boys are looking for the necklace like mine, but it went to the Emporium. The grandmother had an arrangement with the owner.

The owner Jimmy looks like he’s wearing a ratty bathrobe, or an old Jedi costume. He offers to read Sam, and also nails the body language. Jimmy calls it the Orb of Thesa-something, and very powerful and rare. Also expensive. Dean declares that they’ll take the “states’ evidence discount.” Jimmy wants Sam to come for a reading and hands him a card that says, “No Future Too Grim.”

Sam notices that the necklace was made in Taiwan (I bet mine is, too!) A fake. Big shock.

Cut to Russian Nicholas spreading silverware on the coffee table. He bends a fork and it bends back, then all the utensils stand upright and Nicholas is lifted and---this won’t be pretty!

The local cop tells the boys he has leads coming out of his ass—40-something tips on the tip line, all from clairvoyants. They think it’s either a ghost or an ogre that only kills Russians. Dean declares that policing Lily Dale must be fun. The cop says it was here or LA. Then he tells them the clairvoyants told him Nicholas had a vision of his own death. The granddaughter, Natalie calls Dean and asks if he meant it when he said he had an open mind. The brothers go to her house, where Natalie is clearly upset and clutching a cordless phone. Apparently her grandmother had a vision of her own death. Her grandmother said it got cold—Dean stops her and says it must be a ghost. They confess they aren’t FBI agents. Not sure why they told her.

They walk out of the house speculating how a ghost could be bouncing all over the place. Sam asks how many crystal balls might be in Lily Dale. Dean says, “Somewhere between 50 and all of them.” Sam speculates quartz can act as a conduit for spirits, and Dean says, “So every storefront in town has a ghost satellite dish.” Sam points out that people are summoning spirits all over the place, but Dean replies most can’t even call a taxi. Sam says, “All it takes is one.”

So starts the needle in the haystack.

I miss Bobby.

Sam wants to split up and canvass. So they do.

Cut to a woman casting bones, giving a woman a reading about her brother going to prison. The psychic, Sister Thibodeaux, locks up her money, and her eyes go white. She has a vision that something’s coming for her, and she calls Natalie, who brings Dean. Dean notices a camera in one of her masks, and pulls the footage. They see a woman in black move behind Sister T as she has her vision. Natalie remembers having seen her photo in the museum.

Sam and Dean go to check it out. The curator sees the brothers looking at a picture of two brother psychics. He mentions it never worked out well for the siblings, the pressure of working together degraded their relationships. The brothers let that sink in before asking about the two women psychics, the Fox sisters, among the founders of Lily Dale. Kate Fox was able to levitate objects and foretell death. Her sister didn’t have the gift, but looked after Kate. “Sometimes one’s true gift is taking care of others.” The women are buried in the cemetery. Before Dean can leave, the curator grabs Dean’s arm and asks if he knows an Eleanor or an Ellen. The message she has for Dean is to tell someone how bad it is, that he has to trust someone again eventually.

Sam is all business, but Dean is fed up. Dean thinks he’s right, Sam thinks he is. “If something feels wrong, it probably is.” Dean reminds Sam about waving the gun at Satan and not being sure Sam’s off the high-dive. That was why he didn’t tell Sam right away. Dean says, “You can be pissed all you want but quit being a bitch.”

They’re digging up Kate. We’re half an hour in and there has to be more. Sam wonders why she’s warning the psychics before she kills them. Kate appears, all yellow-teethed and gross and demands to know why no one is listening. Sam ignites the bones before she can explain.

Dean calls Natalie and she assures Sister T that she’s safe. Natalie is with Sister T and they see the ghost of Kate’s sister. Natalie calls Dean. Sam takes the phone and tells her to get salt. They run out. Sam tells her to find iron, but Natalie is knocked away and Sister T is toast.

Hey, if this was a NaNoWriMo exercise, I’d almost be at my word count goal.

Natalie tells the brothers that the ghost ignored her, and enjoyed killing. The brothers go back to the cemetery and find an empty grave. Is someone hauling the bones around, a “ghost on a leash?”

Dean pulls an ad for the psychic fair out of the trunk, and he realized all the headliners for the fair are dead. Dean asks Natalie who would be next to replace them, and Natalie said probably herself. Sam goes back to Jimmy and asks for a name of someone who’d bought supplies. Jimmy gives it, while Dean makes a protective salt circle for Natalie. She asks if burning the bones hurts the ghosts, but of course he’s never thought about it.

Sam pulls up in front of a house and bursts in on the woman who’d thought he was evil-serial-killer-Sam. She’s running a Lamaze class, and is completely freaked. Sam realizes Jimmy’s the bad guy and calls Dean to let him know. Dean tells him to hurry up to find the bones, because Ghost Fox is at the window (and creepy as hell!)

I love this monster of the week story—I love vengeful spirit stories.

Sam breaks into Jimmy’s store, sees a lit candle next to a skull, and hears the click of a weapon. Jimmy, the sneaky bastard. Sam disarms Jimmy and tosses the altar, but Jimmy claims Margaret wants to help him. Jimmy and Margaret are the real thing, but they aren’t pretty enough to make a living. While Sam tries to find out the location of the bones, Dean fights off Margaret with salt rounds and iron. Sam has to shoot Jimmy dead before he can get past him to burn the bones, hidden in Jimmy’s bed, just in time to save Natalie.

Dean can’t believe the bones were in the bed. “I can’t believe he was boning her.” Sam is disgusted. Natalie shows up at the restaurant to thank Dean and Sam makes himself scarce. She notes he and Sam seem better. Dean seems encouraged. Natalie says she wishes they’d met on a better week. Dean says, “I wish I had better weeks.” She looks at his palm when he says something about no one knowing the future, and says, “The answer’s hazy. Try again later.”

When Dean walks out, Sam’s putting his gear in the back of Dean’s POS. He says he figures they can take one car. Dean says, “You don’t want to break my face?” Sam says, “Not at the moment.” Sam says he gets why Dean did it, but wants Dean to be honest. Dean’s drinking too much and not sleeping, but he says it isn’t guilt about Amy, but about not telling Sam, and having trouble trusting since Cass.

Dean said they’re poster kids of functional family life compared to the psychic sister act, and Sam said, “That’s a low bar.” “Grading on the curve has gotten me through everything since kindergarten,” Dean said.

Once in the car, Sam said, “I want to know how that guy bent my spoon.”

“Forget it, Sam. It’s Lily Dale.” I’m thinking that line has to be from something, but not sure what.

Overall I liked the episode, in my top five for the season, I think. I would have liked a touch more romance, of course. I’m glad the estrangement was short-lived. The boys are maturing. And next week looks intriguing!

Friday, October 28, 2011

Hmm, methinks the Sam and Dean who are robbing a bank and killing all the patrons and employees are not the real Sam and Dean.

Next we have Bobby trying to make the captured leviathan talk and he's having no luck. When Dean asks the leviathan how he found them, the guy says it was easy and starts talking about using algorithms tracking their known aliases.

Bobby: "Great. Just what we need, a Mensa monster."

The monster says he's the least of their worries, and Sam and Dean see the news that they supposedly robbed a bank and killed everyone.

Dean: "Those sons of bitches Xeroxed us. We find these ass monkeys and we kill them ourselves."

Bobby sends the boys to see a friend of his, Frank, but when they arrive the guy pulls a gun on them and asks who sent them. "NSA, the Feeb, March of Dimes?"

Frank seems freaked out and trigger-happy when the respond with Bobby's name. Okay, this guy is funny. He gives the boy new aliases, Tom and John Smith, and tells them no more rock shout-outs with their names. He tells them to ditch the Impala.

Dean is obviously not happy about having to leave the Impala behind, saying something about putting baby in a corner.

LOL! Dean starts singing to the radio playing Air Supply's "I'm All Out of Love."

Sam is looking at a map of where the dopplegangers have hit, and he realizes they're places where he and Dean have done cases before. Jericho -- Lady in White. Black Water Ridge -- Wendigo. Lady Manatonka -- the kid in the lake. They're in order, from the day Sam left Stanford. Hello, Season 1!

Sam and Dean roll into the next town the dopplegangers are to hit and see them, but the cops roll up and arrest the real Sam and Dean. Oops.

Meanwhile, back at Bobby's cabin, the leviathan has turned into Bobby but then something starts dripping from the ceiling and burning holes in the guy. It's the first thing that has had any effect. Bobby runs upstairs where the lady sheriff (Jodi) is cleaning the floor and...he kisses her!!! Then he asks what was in the bucket.

The dopplegangers switch forms into two cops to get into the police station to see Sam and Dean.

Hey, look, the sheriff is Col. Tigh from Battlestar Galactica.

Sheriff sees the baddies eating one of his deputies and decides to trust Dean. He helps him take out bad Sam. Then we see bad Dean talking with real Sam, and he spills the beans that real Dean killed Amy a couple of episodes back.

Uh oh, one of the FBI agents is a leviathan (I had that suspicion) and comes back to kill the sheriff and his daughter, the medical examiner.

Crowley shows up in the car of the head leviathan trying to make deal, but the head leviathan doesn't think too highly of demons and tells Crowley so in no uncertain terms. I'm thinking this will tick off Crowley enough that he will go back to helping Sam and Dean, but who knows. Maybe I just want to see Crowley on the side of good because he cracks me up sometimes.

Sam confronts Dean about killing Amy then walks away, telling Dean he can't be around him now. And then Sam walks off. Sigh. Brothers separated again. I wonder how long this will last.

Monday, October 24, 2011

We had some technical difficulties, so we apologize for not having our usual timely, amusing, insightful recap and review of the most recent episode. :(

I'm sliding rapidly into the semi-conscious blur that comes with having two books coming out one day apart (Behind the Scenes on 10/31 and Under the Moon on 11/1! /plug), so this is just an impression review rather than a full recap.

This episode has the long-awaited featured guests Charisma Carpenter and James Marsters, formerly of Buffy and Angel fame. They played husband and wife witches having a little feud. Don Stark stepped out on Maggie, who is punishing him by murdering everyone connected to his affair—the woman he slept with, the guy who introduced them, someone who covered for him. Don retaliates by killing Maggie's best friend and ruining the art she's so passionate about. But, as the boys point out in an under-duress counseling session near the end, there must still be love there, because they're not trying to kill each other.

This wasn't a high-emotion, high-intensity, high-mythology, high-anything episode, but as I break it down, I really liked it. The boys engaged in true sleuthing-style investigation, following clues and conducting interviews like someone from a non-paranormal crime drama or something. They worked really well together, despite New!Sam irritating the hell out of Same!Old!Dean, and Dean getting even further into the bottle (I wonder when that's gonna come to a head?).

Bobby's presence on the show was so solid I have to keep reminding myself he never was actually there. I loved how Maggie knew the boys were hunters from the get-go, and Don was actually a pretty quiet character, so different from his flamboyant Spike, while Maggie could have been the original high-school Cordelia all grown up.

A show this old starts to struggle with freshness. But I thought they altered the familiar just enough. They offered great, gruesome new deaths (frying under a hair dryer, nail gun through the eyes, little tiny beating hearts in cupcakes and literally coughing up a lung). We've had witches before, but these are old married witches with no grand agenda, no evil plans, just a typical, personal battle taken a little (lot!) too far.

Probably my only quibble with the whole thing was that Dean killed Amy when her motivation had been pure, when she'd worked hard not to kill in the first place, and now he didn't seem to try hard enough to kill the Starks. Yes, they are extremely powerful witches who totally outmatched the boys, and they haven't actually defeated witches before, but they seemed to give up too easily against people who killed innocents without compunction.

On the other hand, Don Stark putting a spell on the Leviathan and saving the boys from his wife was kind of cool, and left things open for them both to return, which I'm fully in favor of.

So what did you think? Love or hate the episode? Did the guest stars make the show, or was their cult standing too distracting? Do you want to see them again? Weigh in in the comments!

Saturday, October 15, 2011

I’m currently recovering from having my appendix and gallbladder out on Tuesday, so this will not be a full recap. Instead I’m just going to share my thoughts on Defending Your Life. However, I’m doing so under the influence of pain killers.

Between the killer car (and I called Christine before Dean did) and the killer dog my first thought was that Stephen King was responsible for killing these people. Frankly, I kinda liked the idea of an author’s fantasies materializing. I wanted to see ole Stevie with a cameo. But it wasn’t long before I realized their demise was caused by the method of their guilt. When the old dude was being haunted by the couple he killed in a robbery I actually felt saddened to lose the King connection. (Maybe there still is one and I don’t know it.)

What really struck me in this episode was how old and tired Dean acted. From stretching out his aching back to bitching about just wanting a simple day job for once, he’s showing a wear and tear we haven’t seen before. Did anyone else think he seemed more than a little resigned to his death sentence? Has the fight gone out of him?

I actually enjoyed the character of Osiris and particularly enjoyed the trial…until the end. The whole time I was thinking, “Oh, no, here it is, Sam’s going to find out Dean killed Amy.” Dean positively squirmed with guilt and the viewer knew it was that deadly deed and lying to his brother about it that would ultimately cost Dean his life. But he wouldn’t allow Osiris to call her to the stand. I was concerned for nothing.

While Dean was waiting for Sam and Bobby to figure something out I just knew Amy would show up then…but no, it’s Jo. Okay, I get that. It’s a lot meaner for Osiris to send Jo to snuff Dean out. It’s more personal. Cruel. Reciprocal, even. But still…

Overall, I wasn’t real keen on this episode. I like that we learned Dean never wanted to be a lone hunter. I liked seeing Jo again. But the false threat of Dean’s betrayal hanging over the episode like a black cloud and then amounting to a whole lot of nada made me feel cheated. At the very least wouldn’t Sam press him harder to find out who that secret witness was? What did you think? Maybe I’ll rewatch the episode one day and see if I feel different post-recovery. In the meantime, I’m just looking forward to seeing Cordy and Spike next week!

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Netflix, Warner Bros. Television, and the CW have signed a deal to stream CW shows instantly on Netflix for U.S. customers.

Supernatural will start in January 2012. This season will be available in the fall, and future seasons will be added in a "commensurate window." It sounds like they won't be streaming current episodes in any ongoing season; those will stay on the CW's website.

So a few days ago, @jarpad announced on Twitter that he and Genevieve will be having a baby. Apparently some people wanted to send gifts, and he asked for donations to St. Jude Children's Hospital instead. Someone started an official fundraiser, and in 12 hours, they'd raised $3,700 for cancer research.

Part of me thinks that's incredible. Sometimes entertainment seems so frivolous, and our focus on celebrity ridiculous. And then it's turned into something so beneficial and powerful. The ease with which a group can be incited to do good is astounding.

Part of me wonders why we need to be incited. Why do we leap into action just because some tall, good-looking, good-natured guy asks us to? Why is his request more worthy than the little entreaty cards we get in the mail every other day? Is it just because we want him to think well of us?

I hope that's not it. I hope it's more that there is so much need in this world, and we're bombarded with requests and get jaded because it seems so impossible. The focus by someone we admire makes it easy.

In reality, it's probably a combination of the two, and that's okay. The children being helped by that money don't care why it was given, after all.

~~~~~~~~~
If you'd like to participate in this specific fundraiser, click here. They are just shy of $8,000 toward the goal of $20,000.

Friday, October 7, 2011

First impressions: It was a good thing I kept my expectations low for this episode, knowing they can't all be as good as the first two. Don't get me wrong, there was a lot to love about "The Girl Next Door," but it didn't have the same grab-me-by-the-throat effect. I was disappointed that Jewel Staite's role was so small, but very pleased that the rude, selfish edge Dean had in Jensen's directing debut was gone here. He did a great job, especially given that his screen time was greater. I think he has a future behind the camera. I just hope he doesn't pull a Ron Howard and do it for good!

Let's start at the beginning, shall we?

Watching "THEN," I feel like we've had a lot more than two episodes so far. This is a rich, meaty start to season 7. Just like the last two episodes, we start right where we left off. Dean's in the hospital, foggy until they set his leg, which jerks him into the ER. He wants to get out, but Sam's been sent up for an MRI, and they dope Dean before he can try to leave on that broken leg. Fade out on morphine drip...

...and fade in on Dean forgetting why he's at Sioux Falls General. Love the way he rips out his IV, but whoops! Down on the floor.

Bobby comes in. Dean's shocked he's alive. "Course I am," he scoffs, but I'm suspicious that it's not really Bobby. He doesn't explain (ever!) where he was, but he turns out to be the real deal.

Dean: "Hey, look, a monster broke my leg."

Bobby has very little sympathy for Dean's plight. I don't get why he has a full-leg cast for a tibial fracture. I'm sure there are some circumstances that warrant it. I've just never encountered them in real life. Anyway, Dean says he's a gimp, Bobby just hands him crutches and an encouraging smile and heads off to find Sam.

I kind of love the Leviathans. The surgeon takes his "job" so seriously. I mean, they're going to remove and eat someone's internal organs, but he still maintains sterility and lets the "nurse" hold his phone for him. But geez, these guys are gonna be tough. Dropping a car on them doesn't kill them. There's no lore, since they came before humanity, and were put away before us, too. And despite their extreme age and lack of exposure to technology, they've learned it fast. They know when the Winchesters are brought in to the hospital, and...well, let's not jump ahead.

Bobby takes over Sam with an entirely plausible "no insurance, shipping him to County" excuse, and Dean barely makes it to the ambulance in time to get away. Okay, the Leviathans are not invincible. They can't run faster than a vehicle. Good to know.

Now we're in Whitefish, Montana, three weeks later, in what we soon learn is Rufus's cabin. Sam's reading, Dean's watching a telenovella, and he and Bobby are totally hooked. Bobby has retrieved the Impala and gathered info from hunters, who don't know what the Leviathans are but have worked out what they do pretty well.

Bobby's saying the doctor and nurse never showed back up (moving the Big Bad to the background to leave room for other kinds of episodes) while Sam zones out for a minute. He strokes a thumb over the nasty-looking, shiny, puckered scar on his hand, his touchstone.

All Bobby's resources are gone, but he says he's going to go round up his old library. He's stashed copies of his one-of-a-kind books all over the place. Love Bobby!

Dean sends Sam on a grocery run and demands pie, then wants to talk to Bobby about "Girl, Interrupted over there." Bobby swears Sam's healing, but Dean just won't believe that. He's waiting for the other shoe, because that's how things always go.

Whoa. Culture shock. The convenience store is way too bright, and way too colorful. I think they're on the wrong show here.

Sam pays with a credit card for Lenny Kilmister (Lemmy Kilmister is from Motorhead), which rings us to a customer service rep for a credit card company, looking for suspicious charges for a customer. He asks about "Mistress Magda," who was Chuck's phone sex operator of choice. (Man, I miss Chuck!) An alert for Lenny Kilmister pops up, and the guy calls the Leviathan supervisor. See? They somehow learned all their aliases and fake credit cards and can track them that way. Pretty advanced for ancient beings!

At the store, Sam spots a newspaper story about an icepick killer. Just the kind of thing that would trip their initial triggers for a hunt.

Sam gets back to the cabin, Dean asks how he's doing, he says "fine." If, of course, seeing crap that's not real is fine. He doesn't know if it's getting better, but he knows what's real and not—and fondles that scar again. And again.

Sam brought Dean cake instead of pie. Passive aggressive? I mean, by now Sam knows that no, it's not close enough. Sheesh.

Dean is asleep on the couch in a really uncomfortable-looking position. Sam pulls out the paper, and flashes back to Colin Ford yay! Young Sam doing research for Dean and Dad, talking to them on an early mobile phone.

Sam sneaks out as a (fake, cheesy?) promo for My Bloody Valentine 3D plays on the TV.

A sleazy drug dealer is about to take advantage of a strung-out girl when sirens scare them off. He's ducking through a skate park when someone tackles him. Blood sprays, and he's dead.

Back in the cabin, Dean awakes with a wildlife program on TV. He reads Sam's note: "Back in a few days. I'm fine."

Dean (on the phone to Bobby): "Other shoe."

He's pissed Sam took off. Bobby tries to tell him to calm down, give Sam a couple of days, they'll keep trying to reach him. He tells Dean to give it until he gets the cast off, and then hunt him down. Dean's not waiting. He takes a circular saw to the cast himself. Yikes!

Sam's at the morgue, asking a cop about the new dead guy. He clearly knows more than was revealed about the news story. He ignores a third missed call from "Lars Ulrich" (Metallica!) and heads in to check out the body.

In the meantime, Dean is driving a woody wagon (reminiscent of the wood-sided minivan in "Everybody Loves a Clown" in season 2). He stops at the store and finds the paper Sam saw. He's on the hunt.

Sam learns the body's pituitary gland is gone, and flashes back again. We get grown-up Sam setting up his board on the hotel wall (reminiscent of the pilot, and many of their "normal" hunts) interspersed with Young Sam doing the same research years ago. He sees a girl he likes, and we get lots of the awkward adolescent glances.

Adult Sam figures out the next target spot and sits in wait, as Young Sam finalizes his research (yelling "I said you stab it in the heart!" in the library), asks Dean how to talk to girls, and is instantly shot down before he even finishes saying hi to her. Colin Ford is so good. His subtle facial expressions convey his utter devastation at her rejection.

Two boys stride by in the background. They're clearly up to no good. And hey, isn't that one Nico McEown, who played Lucas in "Dead in the Water"?

Outside, Young Sam watches the boys follow the girl and of course he follows, too. And of course they're hassling her, and YES, that's Nico McEown, playing a bully. Sam makes short work of them, though one gets a hit on his cheek before running off.

Adult Sam stalks a clearly adult Amy through the woods. She's about to approach a drunk fumbling with his keys when Sam grabs her. Her necklace confirms her identity. She recognizes him, despite them only spending a few hours together, max, over 10 years ago, and despite "You got tall, huh?" how different he looks.

Amy insists she lives normally, and Sam doesn't believe her. Flash back again to Amy nursing his boo boo and asking how he's such a good fighter. She gets him a soda from a brain-filled fridge. They exchange life stories in five minutes. Both travel a lot and are freaks, though Amy owns the label while Sam rejects it. They bond, and Sam kisses her. Wow, fast mover, Sammy! But okay, "all the coolest people are freaks" is a kiss-worthy line.

In the present, she's trying to get Sam to believe she's not a killer, that she did what she had to and it's over. He can't believe her and apologizes for it. She apologizes too, right before she knocks him into a tree. God! Sam will never be okay if he keeps getting hit in the head!

Dean's hot on the trail, figuring out what Sam's hunting. Sam follows Amy home and is ready to kill her even if he doesn't want to, because she obviously killed again. She tells him he knows her. What kind of person she is. Back in the past, Sam tells Amy that he's been around enough bad to know good when he sees it, even though Amy believes her mother to be bad, which must make her bad, too.

Grown-up Sam won't back off, so Amy shows him her son, which does the trick. She feeds on the dead, working as a mortician, and it's too risky for a kid. Her son got sick, was dying, and needed fresh meat. She swears now that he's better, she's done. She pulls the "after what I did for you" card, and we see her hide Young Sam, who hears Amy's mother say that "a couple of pros in a piece of crap Impala" have caught up to them. So now he knows what he's dealing with. He confronts young Amy, and she understands what he is, too. She talks Sam out of killing her and tells him to run.

Adult Sam unlocks his hotel room door, and we get a spectacular sucker punch from Dean. Holy CRAP, poor Sam! Nice backward swan dive, Padalecki. :) I'd say thanks for the flash of skin, but that would be superficial.

Dean: "New rule. You steal my baby, you get punched." (Shades of "Hunted" in season 2.)

Their confrontation has some nice openness, and Sam tells about the past, when Amy's capitulation made her mother suspicious, and she was about to tear Sam apart when Amy killed her own mother to save him. He explains why he let Amy go now, and Dean still says they have to kill her. It's that simple. Of course, Sam says nothing in their lives is ever simple. When Dean uses the word freak, Sam's ready to walk out. But instead, he finally accepts that trying to be normal his whole life has been stupid. He's a freak, and it's okay. He's managing it. He begs Dean to trust him, and WHOA. Dean says okay. Gotta start somewhere.

A sign things are actually going to change?

Uh, not so fast.

Yep, Dean lies to Sam, leaves him at a hotel while he goes to the "candy store." My first thought is uh, oh, not a painkiller addiction! But no, his next look at Sam is all about subterfuge. Dammit, Dean!

He's in Amy's hotel room. Tracked her license plates. He tells her, not without a hint of compassion, that she is what she is, and she will kill again. She swears she won't, but he says the other shoe always drops...and he stabs her in the heart. With an apology. And then he turns around, bloody knife in hand, to face her son.

And boy, Dean is cold. He asks the kid if he has someone he can go to, then if he ever killed anyone. Tells him not to, or Dean will come for him. The kid makes a vow to kill Dean, and Dean says to come look him up in a few years, assuming he lives that long.

We end with the Leviathan goon "grabbing a bite" after confirming that they will continue tracking every name they have for the Winchesters. We end with the guy pouring hot cheese on the clerk and his gaping, horror-movie mouth coming at the camera.

Yeah, Supernatural has definitely returned to its roots.

Next is a gum commercial that really confused me the first time I saw it. This tiger shows up randomly with a clamp on its foot and asks if he rally has to holler? This time, though, I actually pay attention to the "eenie meenie miney mo" and get the joke. Tiger by the toe! Ahahahaaha!

The promo for next week leaves me full of !!!!!!!!. Dean's final farewell kiss to Jo, and Alona Tal is back! Gosh, I love this show. You never know who's gonna pop up, from important recurring guest star who died spectacularly to random kid playing a new random kid.

I really don't know how I feel about Dean killing Amy. They keep giving us all these little growth moments, with honesty and trust, and the boys are really trying to improve the way they handle things and interact. And then this happens. Dean was convinced Lenore ("Bloodlust" season 2!) could control her hunger, and Amy has even bigger incentive to stay on the straight and narrow—her son. Dean's cold disregard for the shades of gray feels like a step back. On the other hand, could he really let her go?

Part of my ambivalence is because I felt there were details glossed over that could have aided the decision-making, even by making it harder. They implied she was trying to kill scumbags, but she never used that as a defense. And when she swore she wouldn't kill again, why didn't either Sam or Dean point out that she'd obviously do anything for her son, so she couldn't make that promise? But then, leaving Jacob without a mother, especially the way it happened, almost guarantees he's going to follow his grandmother's path rather than his mother's.

So what are your thoughts? Like the episode? What could they have done differently?

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

This is how much I love you, readers of this blog. I am subjecting myself to spoilers because my Google Alert were full of REALLY AWESOME STUFF! So read at your own risk. Seriously—the post title should be warning enough. :)

We already knew James Marsters and Charisma Carpenter were going to guest star. Reports on the October 21st episode say they play a married couple getting a divorce, and Charisma plays a witch.

I didn't watch the sneak peek, but couldn't help clicking the headline when I learned that Jewel Staite (of Firefly!) plays a character named "Amy Pond" in this week's episode. Love the Doctor Who tribute!

Geez, my head might explode from the convergence of all my geektastic faves.

Okay, this is the story that made me stop squinching my eyes shut, covering my ears, and going "lalalalalala!" so I didn't learn anything about the season. Episode 8, titled "Season 7: Time for a Wedding," is going to be one of the light, funny, slightly meta episodes we love. And one of the boys is going to be a groom. Boy, I can't WAIT to see what they have in store for us with that!

In that same story, Sera Gamble says Cas will be back, though she won't give any hints as to how. She also does an interview for TVLine that addresses lots of questions about Cas, Misha (yes, two different things!), Crowley, angels, and more. Generalized spoilers in that interview.

That's all for now! I'll see you late Friday night when I recap episode 3, "The Girl Next Door"!

Friday, September 30, 2011

I'd planned to watch the episode first, then recap on the second viewing, but it's Friday night and I'm toast. So, here we go:

I’ve been so excited about this season since the season premiere. I love the idea of Leviathans, which I never really understood, but now I want to find out. Now I’m watching Cass walk out on Dean and bobby, leaking blood and I’m so glad Tanya isn’t writing this recap.

Then we have Sam being choked (must be Friday) by Lucifer, who claims he’s real, Sam’s real, and all the rest is set dressing. Sam’s so confused, and Lucifer’s voice becomes Dean’s, and Lucifer disappears.

Dean, Sam and Bobby chase after Cass, who goes into a lake and causes a whirlpool. Snake-like ribbons of smoke appear, heading in all directions (husband was not impressed with effects), and they notice the sign that says “Public Water Supply.” Oops.

Then Dean notices the trench coat floating in the water and pulls it out, regret in his every move. Cass had made the choices he made because he felt he had to. Of all people, Dean understands that.

The camera cuts to all manner of water being utilized, including one little girl drinking from a fountain, trembling, then turning to her brother with a chilling smile. A mechanic’s pipes are rattling and he’s sprayed with black liquid.

Sam is sleeping and hears a voice calling his name. Lucifer? No, Dean, who hands him a water bottle and a protein bar—breakfast in bed. Dean checks Sam’s hand, which he cut on broken glass (worst stitches ever?), and Sam sees Lucifer over his shoulder, taunting him. Sam admits he’s hallucinating. Dean questions why Lucifer would create a world for Sam. Sam and Lucifer together say, “You can’t torture someone if there’s nothing left for you to take away.” Lucifer says the life he created has to be a mess so Sam would believe it was his life.

Creepy possessed girl is flipping through the channels and lands on Dr. Sexy, MD. The dialogue therein gives her an idea, because she smiles.

Bobby’s as worried about Dean as he is about Sam, but Dean brushes off his concern. Is it me, or is Bobby getting all the best lines this season? “You just lost one of the best friends you ever had, your brother’s in the bell jar, and purgatory’s most wanted are surfing the sewer lines, but you’re fine.” He assures him that he’ll always be there, and then end the scene with some banter that seems to reassure both of them.

Meanwhile, a member of the HS swim team dashes out the brains of his teammates, and a doctor checks on his post-op patients. One is Sheriff Jody Mills. I didn’t recognize her.

Sam and Bobby find the story of the swim team, and they send Dean on his own. Sam’s in no shape to go on a hunt and Bobby’s running the hub.

The mechanic meets up with the creepy girl meet up in a park. She complains that the girl knows nothing, can’t even see over counters. She is hungry, and repeats it again and again. Apparently she is somewhat in charge because she needs to get the others in line. The killings made the papers, and that’s unacceptable. The “boss” wants to know it’s been taken care of. Boss, eh? More and more interesting. She says she has an idea, and shows up at the hospital, where she meets the doctor who’d been checking on his post-op patients. She grasps his wrists and says she wants to grow up now. She takes on his form!

Turns out the one patient was pre-op, and the doctor Leviathan comes to take her away. The sheriff decides to check it out. She sees Dr. Leviathan eating one of the woman’s internal organs (again glad Tanya isn’t doing this recap). The nurse gives her a sedative and the doctor comes in with a promise to check on her later. She rips out her IV but the meds are already taking effect.

Dean checks out the scene, then calls Sam, who can’t concentrate with Lucifer reading tabloids behind him. Sam demands Lucifer end the torture, but Lucifer says this is his sweet spot, watching all the paint melting off his walls. This will end when Sam can’t take it anymore. Is that why Sam’s cleaning his guns? Sam orders Lucifer to shut up and Bobby comes in, wanting to know if Sam is having “a bag lady moment.” As Bobby tries to comfort him, Lucifer stands behind Bobby with a poker and stabs him through the heart.

Sheriff Mills manages to call Bobby to ask for help. Bobby tells Sam, “Either Sheriff Mills is having an Obamacare-insured opium dream, or something is eating folks down at Sioux Falls General Hospital.” He has to leave Sam alone with his visions of Lucifer.

At this point I’m seeing what Natalie means about being more interested in Sam than Dean these days.

Two of the swim team arrive with the mechanic and Dr. Leviathan takes them deeper into the hospital where they can feast every day. As the swim team boys tak over the bodies of the head nurse and the administrator, the mechanic talks about the boss some more.

Sam is cleaning his gun when Dean comes home. He needs back-up because there are more than 2 Leviathans. Sam is hesitant, but gets his gun.

Bobby rescues the sheriff and puts her in a taxi, then goes into the hospital to investigate the lady Dr. Leviathan killed. She’s already been autopsied, which confuses him.

Dean’s conversation with Sam, about Sam being crazy, that he’s never going to be okay, raises some red flags. Not Dean! Not Dean! Didn’t see that coming. What is Lucifer’s plan here? Dean gets to Bobby’s and discovers Sam is missing. The Dean who is with Sam morphs into Lucifer and Sam starts shooting. Lucifer taunts him, wanting to shoot himself.

Dr. Leviathan comes upon Bobby, who tries to bluff his way out of the hospital, but the Leviathan knows him because of Cass. Bobby hits him, saying, “Let’s try for amnesia,” then shoots him and runs when it has no effects.

Dean finds Sam in the warehouse where Lucifer led him and Sam points a gun at him. Dean is freaking, but is desperate to reach his brother. He points out Sam’s injured hand. “This is real.” He squeezes it, reminding him he got it not too long ago, not before he went to hell. “You got away. We got you out. Believe in that.” Lucifer flickers. “You’ve got to believe me. Make it stone number one and build on it.” Sam nods, breathless.

Bobby calls and fills them in on the Leviathan, and they’re to meet back at Bobby’s, but when they do---oh, no!! Bobby’s house burned! No! No sign of Bobby, all the books are gone, all the stuff for spells. The first thing they should have done is call. Now Dean does, and he says if Bobby’s dead, he’s going to strap his “Beautiful Mind” brother in the car and drive off the pier. “You asked how I was doing? Well, not good.”

I’m not doing too good myself right now. They’ve lost everything. That absolutely breaks me.

Sam comes upon the mechanic in the junkyard. Dean shoots him in the head but that only pisses him off. The Winchesters are marked for annihilation. He hits Dean hard enough to break his leg and clocks Sam in the head, knocking him unconscious. Dean drops a car on him, and black ooze appears from beneath the car.

Somehow an ambulance finds them. The EMT says Sam has increased inter-cranial pressure and look, Lucifer is back. He promises not to go anywhere, and Sam starts seizing as they’re pulling into Sioux Falls General Hospital. Meanwhile, back in the junkyard, the black ooze is sucked back into the Leviathan’s body.

And….end credits???? NOOOOOOO!!!!! Bobby??? BOBBY???? Bobby’s house, his belongings…they’re going to have to start everything from scratch. And Dean with a broken leg? How is he going to get around? Not to mention the loss of Cass…I wanted to see more of Misha as the Leviathans.

Monday, September 26, 2011

OMG! Eric Kripke is teaming up with J.J. Abrams to create a one-hour NBC "epic adventure thriller.” No real details other than Kripke wrote the pilot and will produce along with Abrams and Bryan Burk. Pairing these two together makes REVOLUTION an automatic watch for me. How about you? Is this a genius duo or what?

D.J. Qualls was shooting Supernatural last Friday, when he was severely beaten by Vancouver police. Qualls witnessed a fight and when he tried to tell an officer what he saw he was attacked. He's okay, but he took to this twitter account to demand justice. You can read the complete article here.

You'll see Qualls in the SPN episode entitled "Time for a Wedding." He plays a laid back hunter named Garth who annoys Dean.

Friday, September 23, 2011

Welcome back to a new season of Supernatural and weekly recaps here at Supernatural Sisters!

We got off to a good start with tonight's episode ("The New Boss") with some Dean-appropriate music -- "Slow Ride" by Foghat. And we picked up right where last season left off, with Castiel proclaiming himself the new God and telling Dean, Sam and Bobby to bow down before him. Bobby goes down to his knees, and Dean starts to before Cas says to not bother because they're doing it out of fear, not out of love.

Poof, Cas is gone and we see him walking outside, talking to someone, telling them that he thought free will was the answer but now realizes now that it's a firm hand. When the camera pans back, we see a field of dead angels. Disturbing image, that.

I could almost hear MJ keening in agony when they showed the horrible state of the Impala. Once again, Dean was having to bring her back from the dead. While he and Bobby are talking about looking for Cas, Bobby delivered what I think was the best line of the episode: "What am I looking for? Miracles? Mass visions? Trenchcoat on a tortilla?" LOL!!!

Poor Sam, his noggin isn't what she used to be. He keeps hearing things and having hallucinations, part of his memories from Hell making it past the wall. Of course, he tells Dean he's fine. Dude, these guys need to stop keeping secrets.

Cas shows up at a church where a preachers is preaching against homosexuality. Cas says he's indifferent to sexual orientation and what he can't abide by is hypocrites. And then he kills the minister where he stands, one of only many killings of religious leaders. One of the members of the first preacher's congregation is giving a TV interview when she says that God didn't have a beard and wasn't old. "He was young...and sexy." Snort.

Okay, how many of you thought it was hilarious that Crowley was hiding out in an old RV in Tennessee? Cas shows up, tells Crowley (who gave some really funny expressions of surprise) that he's sending him back to be the king of Hell but that Cas will be the gatekeeper deciding where souls go from now on.

Next time we see Crowley, he's been called by Sam, Dean and Bobby. They want info that will help them bind Death in hopes he can kill the off-the-deep-end Cas before he royally screws up the world. Of course, they don't have one of the main ingredients for the spell to bind Death, so they have to go steal it (a spear-like thing of crystallized sand that was hit by lightning). When the security guard tries to stop them, Dean taps him on the shoulder and asks, "Do you have any Grey Poupon?" before punching the guy out. Giggle. I'm guessing some viewers of Supernatural are too young to remember that Grey Poupon commercial.

When Death shows up, Cas isn't far behind. Death tells Cas that there were things older than the souls that resided in Purgatory, Leviathans, beasts that God created before man. They were so powerful that God locked them away, but Cas swallowed them up and now they're fighting to get out. Thus, the gross way Castiel's skin seems to be melting off and that whole Alien-esque thing in his stomach. Death takes a seat and eats the pickle chips and milkshake Dean brought him. (Just for the record, I love Julian Richings' portrayal of Death.)

Cas goes poof again and heads for a senator's campaign headquarters, set on punishing her because she's doing immoral things in his name. But he collapses and later wakes up with a bunch of dead, really bloody people around him. Methinks the Leviathans inside him are winning.

Sam, still believing the old Cas is in there somewhere, calls him, and Cas comes. He says he needs help and agrees to go back to the lap where the door to Purgatory will be opened by Death. The spell works, the souls return to Purgatory, and after a momentary scare that Cas was dead, he wakes up and seems to be the old Cas. Yay!

Cas: "I'm embarrassed. I really overreached."Dean: "You think?"

I wasn't looking forward to a whole season of Cas playing God. But, wait, that was too easy. Yep, the souls went back to Purgatory, but the Leviathans are still there, and they make their presence known, saying they've killed Cas. I will steadfastly believe Cas is still alive in there until it's proven otherwise.

What did you think of the season premiere? Do you think the old Cas is still in there somewhere? Will we not see him until the end of the season?

After Elton has a great interview with Misha. He talks about realizing when he'd been accepted by the SPN community, despite fans usual reticence to embrace anyone other than Jared and Jensen, and how it came to his attention that he'd gained a big gay following. Fun interview, no spoilers.

Since Tom Brady went 14-2 with that hair and was the first unanimous MVP in the NFL, I think Jared Padalecki's safe, no matter what he does with his hair.

The Supernatural fandom used to talk about Sam's hair all the time. I'm rewatching season 2 right now, and it started out just as ridiculous as in season 1. But after that—with occasional relapses—it was good hair.

What do we think about it now? Personally, I love it. Makes me want to be a hairdresser so I can get my hands in it. I could definitely do without those gigantic sideburns, though.